McCain and the POW Card

I swear on a stack of bibles that I was going to write, basically, the same column that Maureen Dowd wrote today. It’s somewhere on the loose piece of paper that comprises my collection of notes of blog post ideas. She beat me to it. Rats, in a way. But I am, for obvious reasons, much happier that she wrote it.

She is exactly right about this. At some point, John McCain has got to stop hiding behind a Vietnamese prison and take responsibility for his life after that point.

My guess is he probably can’t. And who can blame him? A searing experience like that must leave terrible mental scars. This event, coupled with his family history, raises legitimate questions about his psychological capability to run the country. Is he over his POW experience? How does it color his foreign policy thinking? Is there some hidden shame for the son of an admiral to have been a POW? Will he start World War III to make sure he’s earned Daddy’s respect?

In order to be the president of the United States, we can’t give him the benefit of the doubt on these questions. As we watch his team play the POW card every time someone questions him, the concerns will only deepen.